1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recognition scheme, and, in particular, to an image recognition scheme by which a specific pattern image can be recognized/identified/detected highly precisely.
2. Description of the Related Art
Concerning a color image recognition method, for example, Japanese laid-open patent application No. 8-263662 discloses a method in which, not an entire input color image is processed uniformly, but only a sad. Patterns image which is formed in accordance with a predetermined rule is attempted to be recognized highly precisely.
According to this art, mark extraction is made by using a window for scanning ‘binary image data’ (in which each pixel has a value of either one of two values, for example, 0 and 1, or white and black) or through Hough transformation. However, determination as to whether or not a target image part corresponds to a predetermined mark (pattern image) to be recognized/detected may be difficult in case where a relevant image part has become unclear, i.e., a relevant figure is faint, or crushed due to some reason.